By Any Other Name
by IridescentFlight
Summary: She was beautiful, cruel, untamed. She could not be bound by any name. Axel just had to do the best he could, knowing she was savage, knowing she was nymphlike, knowing she was different. [Larxelesque, vague Axel POV, basically him choosing her title.]


Disclaimer: Larxene and Axel are dead. Sora is still alive.

Do you really have any doubts that I don't own Kingdom Hearts?

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Author's Corner: Oh Em Gee, IridescentFlight actually isn't dead. Enjoy, my friends and fellow Larxel-lovers.

Dedicated to: All the Axel/Larxene fans out there, and especially to my friend

-Ultra Violet- .Is. A .W.i.c.k.e.d. .S.p.e.l.l.

who makes pretty Larxel AMVs and tells me I'm good at writing even when I'm moping over a recent work.

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"It is always by way of pain one arrives at pleasure."

Those were some of the first words Larxene spoke as Nobody. Axel should know, seeing as how he was there, when she was first found in the Darkness. Recruiting for the Organization was getting more interesting by the minute, he had thought, looking down at the sly smile on her upturned face. Someone to definitely watch out for, but then again, wasn't that practically a requirement for people in this damn Organization?

"Did that just come outta nowhere?" he had asked her with raised eyebrows. _Like you? It should be Nowhere._

"Something I read," she'd answered dismissively, though he could see the slight crease of her brows as she grappled with memories that she now knew weren't hers. They had arrived at Castle Oblivion by now via Dark Corridor, and he had already given her the rundown, how she was an empty shell, her name wasn't _Arlene, _she could hook up with their nifty little Organization and get a heart, blah blah freaking blah. He'd had the whole damn speech memorized by now, seeing as how she was number XII.

Yes, Axel had found her. Axel the manipulator, Axel the pyro, Axel, The Flurry of Dancing Flames. And that was the thing….

He'd found her: protocol said he had to give the new Nobody her title.

From the moment Larxene had first smirked at him, Axel knew that some simple, obvious title wasn't going to cut it. Not something as boring as what Xaldin had, or as pathetic as what Zexion had. Honestly, the Cloaked Schemer? How lame. Zexion tried too hard to be mysterious and intimidating.

It took him a little while to think of something.

The first idea had come to him when they had fought in the traditional battle, meant to test her skills and identify her element and weapons.

As soon as she had come at him, whirling and slashing, her kunai held like claws, her eyes so full of malicious laughter, he had immediately thought: _Savage. _Hers was a wild, dangerous grace, and no one, nonexistent or otherwise, would ever change that.

She was the kind of person who hurt on a whim, who delighted in cruelty, free of shame. Sadistic. Savage. _Watch out for her._

Despite this, or maybe because of it, there was no denying that she was attractive.

Though maybe Axel's view was a bit biased, since she was the first girl to ever join the Organization and he'd been around nothing but guys _way_ too long.

Either way….

When he'd gone to go find her, she'd been in the library, browsing the crammed bookshelves, gloved hand holding up her chin with on oddly thoughtful look on her youthful face. Axel hadn't pegged her for the intellectual type, but there she was, running her fingers along bookbindings with an obviously pleased expression.

"Hey there Heartless-Hair," he greeted, smirking slightly as he anticipated the reaction his unofficial title for her would cause. It was true that those two strands of blonde hair reminded him of a Shadow.

He wasn't disappointed. Larxene turned toward him, her full lips slowly forming the mocking trace of a smile. She closed the distance between them, head tipped back playfully.

"You know so much about hair, Axel? Is that why yours looks like a hedgehog died on top of your head?" She laughed oh-so-innocently, fingering a spike of his red hair before walking by, leaving him surprised into silence.

Larxene paused momentarily and looked over her shoulder, her grin wide and wicked. "You're pretty cute, for all that."

Axel shook his head, adding another new piece of information on the enigma that was the twelfth member. "Hey, Larxene?"

"Yeah?" she asked, pausing again.

"Welcome to the Organization, Twelve … The Savage Nymph."

Those electric-blue eyes were as sharp as her kunai even when her smile softened. Her thunder-yellow hair seemed to glow in contrast to the white walls, outlining her slender black-cloaked form. A nymph.

She dramatically placed one hand over her empty heart and titled her head, the picture of wickedness and purity all at once.

"I'm so flattered. You made that all up for me?" With one last giggle, Larxene blew him a kiss and disappeared into a dark portal.

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Author's Corner: How appropriate. It's thundering and flashing lightening as I write this.

I had to review everything I knew about Larxene. In the original game and manga, she was a lot more grimly sadistic than she was laughingly so. Now in the PS2 remake, she's all a giggly, "I'm gonna so kick your ass" sadistic. And is it just me, or is she a huge flirt for Axel? Minx. I still love her, possibly more now.

Second disclaimer: The first line is a quote from _Marquis de Sade._ Not from me. And by the way, if that book was what Larxene read in her spare time, no wonder she's so keen on getting all up-close-and-intimate with Axel all o' a sudden now. Sade was obsessed with sex.


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